


The Kitten Fic

by merlypops



Series: Space Husbands (Paul Stamets/Hugh Culber) [7]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern, Boyfriends, Crack, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Kitten, Living Together, M/M, Paul finds a kitten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-28 23:38:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12618144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merlypops/pseuds/merlypops
Summary: “There's a cat in your jacket, isn’t there?” Hugh realised.Paul nodded solemnly.Paul comes home with a stray kitten and Hugh is powerless to say no.





	The Kitten Fic

It was raining heavily as Hugh stood in their tiny kitchen, hunched over the stove as he boiled spaghetti in a saucepan his grandmother had kindly donated when he'd moved in with his boyfriend. There was a periodic table pinned to the wall over the dining table and a slightly miserable-looking sunflower drooping in a pot on the windowsill. Hugh stirred the spaghetti dispassionately as he hummed along to the classical music playing on the crackly radio nearby.

His feet were swathed in fluffy slipper socks and he was wearing one of Paul’s oversized sweatshirts as he stood there on the cracked linoleum. The light from the bare bulb overhead cast strange shadows around their cramped kitchen and Hugh sighed softly as the tap dripped water with a metallic _chink_.

Don’t get him wrong. Hugh loved the flat; loved their routines and their toothbrushes standing side by side in the stripy mug, and the truly hideous throw blanket Paul had unearthed in a garage sale that they'd spread across the foot of the bed they shared. What Hugh _didn't_ love so much was the temperamental heating and the pathetic water pressure in their shower which was (believe it or not) even worse than what they’d had to suffer through during their university days.

Hugh was happy here though; happy with Paul and his medical training, and the way he fell even deeper in love with the eccentric scientist every single day.

The front door creaked open in the hallway – _speak of the devil_ – and Hugh’s expression became sympathetic when he heard the sound of low cursing as Paul stumbled inside out of the rain. Paul locked the door and kicked his trainers off clumsily before padding into the kitchen in his socks, his blond hair plastered to his forehead and his anorak dripping water onto the floor as he clasped his arms awkwardly across his chest.

“You don’t want to take your coat off?” Hugh asked in lieu of a greeting. Paul gave his boyfriend what Hugh had lovingly nicknamed his ‘shifty eyes’ and the doctor frowned, his suspicions rising.

“I’m okay for now actually,” Paul said. “But thank you for your concern.” He was being too cheerful for someone who had almost been washed away on the walk home and Hugh actually lowered the heat on the stove, stepping forwards curiously.

“You’re being weird,” he said. “Why are you being weird?”

Paul looked offended as the rain dripped down into a puddle on the floor but he seemed to be blushing too and Hugh didn’t trust the way his boyfriend was bouncing from foot to foot in apparent excitement.

“What are you hiding?” he asked with narrowed eyes. Paul opened his mouth – chest swelling with bluster – but, before he had time to speak, a small mew sounded. Paul clapped his mouth shut at once and Hugh stared in shock.

“Um…” He gave his boyfriend a funny look. “Do you need a throat sweet, babe?”

Paul rolled his eyes but his lips were quirking into a faint grin anyway.

“Oh please. You _know_ that wasn’t me,” he muttered, even as his blue eyes gleamed hopefully in the dim light. “ _Hugh_ ,” he said slowly, making sure to flutter his eyelashes in a way that definitely set alarm bells ringing. “You know how you love me and you _really_ want me to be happy?”

“Oh god, Paul,” Hugh groaned. “What do you want now?”

Paul glowered but another mewling noise sounded and his face instantly softened as he peered down into the confines of his anorak. Hugh’s heart began to race in his chest.

“Okay, just… don’t freak out, okay? Please don't freak out.” Paul was giving his boyfriend a placating look now and Hugh groaned, turning off the stove entirely before folding into a chair.

“Just tell me,” he said hopelessly and Paul scrunched his nose up disapprovingly, the gesture so cute that Hugh’s heart hurt.

“Fine,” Paul said. “ _Fine_. It’s just… Okay. Damn. _I-found-a-kitten-on-the-way-home-and-I-wondered-if-we-could-keep-her_.” He spoke so quickly that Hugh simply gaped at him in shock for a moment before he slowly processed what his boyfriend had said.

“What?” Hugh asked blankly before: “No, Paul. _No_. We can barely look after ourselves! I barely know how to cook pasta! You and I’d forget to feed it!”

“Hey!” Paul argued, just as another of the small mewling noises made themselves apparent. The doctor instantly balked.

“There's a cat in your jacket, isn’t there?” Hugh realised.

Paul nodded solemnly.

“Yes,” he said sulkily. “And now you’ve probably hurt her feelings. First she got made homeless and now you’re making her feel unwanted. Nice, Hugh. Real nice.”

“Paul!” Hugh whined, dropping his head into his hands for a moment. “I just… I want to make sure she’s properly looked after and I’m worried we wouldn’t be any good. I mean, we haven’t even talked about this! And besides, do you even know how to look after a cat?”

“Sure I do,” Paul lied easily. “They like milk, fish… um… cat biscuits?”

“Damnit, Paul,” Hugh said heavily. “Milk is actually not that great for cats… and neither is fish.” Paul looked suddenly panic-stricken.

“Oh my god, are you serious?!” he gasped, looking utterly horrified. “Is everything I thought I knew about cats wrong?!”

“Apparently,” Hugh muttered, just because he could. He immediately weakened though, taking in the new slump to his boyfriend’s shoulders as he gazed down unhappily at the little bundle in his arms.

“Can I see her?” Hugh asked curiously and Paul shot him a glum look as he opened his arms a little. A tiny black and white kitten was nestled there, her fur sopping wet from the rain and her bright green eyes inquisitive as they peered up into Hugh’s face, blinking slowly. She reminded him of the cat he’d had during his childhood and he could feel his already-weak resolve crumbling.

“I’m sorry I sprung this on you,” Paul said morosely as he looked down at her, scratching her lightly behind one tufted ear with his fingernail. “It’s just…” A lump seemed to have risen in his throat now as his blue eyes glistened. “She could’ve been our baby,” he said softly, his voice more vulnerable than Hugh had ever heard it.

The doctor swallowed audibly as his throat thickened with tears and he stepped closer, wrapping one arm gently around Paul’s waist as he rested his chin on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“I didn’t mean to make you sad,” he said gently. “I was just worried but…” Hugh hesitated before pressing a light kiss to Paul’s cheek. “I think maybe our little family's ready for another member, don't you, babe?”

Paul gazed at him in absolute shock before his lower lip wobbled and a watery smile lit his pale face.

“You really mean it?” he whispered, raising the little kitten to nuzzle her soft fur and making Hugh’s heart melt in the process. “We can really keep her?”

“Of course we can,” Hugh promised and Paul’s smile was like the sun. “Anything for you.”

“Can we call her Mushroom?” the blond man asked and Hugh rolled his eyes skyward.

“Don’t push it, babe.”


End file.
